After dinner the people mustered for the remains of the ceremony, and
Cook determined to join the principal party, so he seated himself with
it, and would not understand when requested to leave. He was then
requested to bare his shoulders as a mark of respect, and immediately did
so, and was then no further molested. A somewhat similar performance was
gone through as the day before, but the significance of which could not
be ascertained, and then suddenly all the people turned their backs on
king and prince, who, Cook was afterwards informed, had had pieces of
roast yam given them to eat. An exhibition of boxing and wrestling was
then given, and after a speech or two the proceedings terminated. Cook
was informed that in about three months a much greater affair would take
place at which ten men would be sacrificed.

On 10th July the ships sailed through a very difficult passage, arriving
off Middleburg on the 12th, where they were visited by their old friend
Taoofa. The country appeared flourishing, and they obtained some turnips
raised from seed sown at Cook's last visit. An exhibition of boxing was
given, and was to have been repeated the following night, but
unfortunately some of the natives fell upon a sailor and stripped him of
his clothes. Cook thereupon seized two canoes and a pig, demanding that
the culprits should be given up. A man who had the shirt and trousers was
brought, and so the canoes were returned and the pig paid for, and next
day the thief was liberated. The remainder of the sailor's clothes were
afterwards found, but so much torn as to be worthless.

They left the Friendly Islands on the 17th, after a stay of more than two
months, during which time they had been living almost entirely on food
they had purchased from the natives, with whom they had been on fairly
good terms. The 29th brought them into a very heavy squall which cost the
Resolution a couple of staysails and her consort a main topmast and main
topgallant yard, springing the head of her main-mast so badly that the
rigging of a jury-mast was attended with some danger, but it was at
length accomplished, a spare jibboom being furnished for the purpose by
the Resolution. Otaheite was reached on 12th August, and amongst the
first visitors on board were Omai's brother-in-law and others who knew
him before he went away; they treated him as if he was an Englishman and
a stranger, but when he took his brother-in-law to his cabin and gave him
so